Kkangpae
by Alley Lane
Summary: Kang Sang Hee, a Korean child adopted by a prominent Zainichi Korean family. As most privileged children, she now attends Ouran Academy and, though quiet and withdrawn, seems to live as normal a life as any heiress. But she's wary and anxious. She's hiding something. That something draws the attention of the Host Club—and requires their help. / This is a revamp.


Before the fic starts off, I need to get a few things out of the way.

This fic, Kkangpae, was originally posted on a former account of mine, ObscENyx. It gained quite a few followers and a handful of reviews and got a lot of positive feedback, but I let it fall through and stopped coming back to it at all, even though I had all these plans laid out for it and I really loved the plot.

This fic has been a regret of mine for a long while, especially letting it go. I originally let it go because of laziness and lack of time, but I also eventually became really disappointed in the chapters I had already posted. I didn't feel like they did the concept justice and weren't very well-written. So I absolutely did not want to continue with the work I already had out there, but I really didn't want to give up the idea because it's been one of my favorites. Thus, I am in the process of re-writing it with a different tone and a bit more experience and a lot more in-depth research. Character names have changed, characterizations for many of the characters have changed, story elements and plot devices have changed, relationships have changed, story progression has changed, but the basic plot is still in-tact.

The original fic is still up on ObscENyx, but that account is for a variety of reasons abandoned. The two stories on it—Kkangpae and New Evolution—are, as they currently are, abandoned. I will only post the Kkangpae rewrite here. I am not stealing the fic, I did not adopt it, I'm the original author, just with a new account and ready to breathe new life in to the story.

* * *

In early November, the streets of Tokyo were growing cold and the sun was early to set. A girl with long, auburn hair stuffed under a baseball cap walked the sidewalk with her eyes trained on the ground. She would look up occasionally, when the shorter, bleach-blonde girl bouncing alongside her pointed something out. The taller girl would smile, but it was clear she was worried, even under the glow of the multicolored neon lights that were beginning to flicker on in the shops. She checked her phone often. Another girl with plain black hair hung back, taking pictures with a high-end camera and then dashing forward to show the other two. The girl in the cap would always smile brightly when she did.

"Sang Hee, this is a really nice one of you!" she said, showing the other girl another picture.

"It is. Thank you, Junko," Sang Hee replied quietly. She glanced at her phone again.

The blonde girl pouted at the two. "Junko, how come you only take candids of Sang Hee? Am I not pretty enough?" she whined. Junko rolled her eyes.

"Maybe if you'd stop turning around and throwing a victory sign every time you hear the camera click…" Sang Hee muttered. Junko laughed, while the blonde girl made a show of stomping her feet.

Sang Hee's smiled died as her pocket vibrated. She whipped it out of her pants pocket and sighed when she realized it was just her alarm. Six o'clock. Time to start heading home.

"Chie," she addressed the blonde girl, "are you walking with me? If I don't get home soon, Hye Soo will throw a fit."

Chie groaned. "But we haven't even gotten Korean barbeque yet. You've been here two years and we've never gone once, we should go."

Sang Hee crinkled her nose. "That's because it's not Korean barbeque. It tastes all wrong. I'd rather eat natto for a year than eat the stuff you guys dare to call barbeque. Are you walking with me or not?"

Chie stuck her tongue out. "Fine, I'll walk with you. But one day you have to take me to Seoul and buy me a bunch of Korean food! Like that one you always talk about when we get braised pork belly. Sam—sam-guyub—"

"Samgyeopsal. I thought you said you took Korean?"

Chie ignored her friend, instead trying to mouth the dish's name. Junko had hung back again, taking more pictures of the girls and the scenery. Sang Hee stopped and turned, asking the photographer if she would join them. Junko gave a half-smile and shook her head.

"I'm actually going to go up to Ouran and take some footage of the gardens and the stars. It's the only place you can really see them in Tokyo without being a hundred meters up. I'll see you guys tomorrow, okay?"

Her friends nodded and said their goodbyes, turning their backs on the black-haired girl and heading off in the direction of Sang Hee's home. Junko gave a small laugh when she heard Chie beg for Korean barbeque again. Sang Hee apparently relented—the two ducked into a small restaurant with a South Korean flag on the sign.

Junko snapped one last picture of the girls, then turned on her heel and started the long walk back to Ouran Academy, hands stuffed in her hoodie pocket and her camera hung around her neck.


End file.
